Carter’s three-run blast caps Astros’ comeback

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Chris Carter’s a relatively emotionless slugger, a trait that can bring him at times some undue criticism, suggestions he might not care.

A slow exit from the batter’s box in the eighth inning was deserved flare Tuesday night. He crushed a 439-foot, go-ahead homer to left field as far as Minute Maid Park’s enclosed roof would allow in a 4-2 Astros win over the A’s.

If anything, Carter undersold it. But he sure did care.

The three-run shot was annihilated off righthander Luke Gregerson and helped the Astros snap a three-game losing streak. They trailed 2-1 to start the inning.

“Not really,” Astros starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel said when asked if he’d ever seen Carter watch his handiwork like that before. “That’s why I was kind of joking with him. I said, ‘Dang, you really watched that one.’ It reminded me of Manny Ramirez with the Red Sox back in the day.”

Carter’s well within reach of 40 home runs, with 32 on the season. Tuesday’s shot left the bat at 106 mph.

“That was just pure excitement,” Carter said of his feeling when the ball left the bat. “I knew it was a home run, no doubter. … I didn’t watch it all the way.”

Three pitches before Gregerson left a 1-1 fastball low and over the middle, the A’s reliever hit Jose Altuve with a pitch in the left side of the back — to the left of the ’2′ in his No. 27 on his jersey and below the ‘A’ in Altuve. Altuve was clearly in pain, but manager Bo Porter said afterwards there was no concern.
There was one out when Carter stepped in.

“I’m sure he’s looking for a ground ball there on a sinker and left one up for me,” said Carter, who was robbed in the third inning on a smoked liner by a Jonny Gomes dive in left field. “I’m just trying to hit a ball in the gap there, hit it in the air.”

Said Gregerson: “I was trying to throw a sinker down and away, and it started away and just ran all the way back across the plate, down and in. Not necessarily a bad location for a lot of guys, just not for him.”

Chad Qualls finished off the ninth with a strikeout looking of Coco Crisp on an elevated full-count sinker for save No. 15.

Carter’s homer was only the Astros fourth’ hit of the night. The reality all season has been that the Astros are naked without the long ball. With 146, they’re two shy of last year’s total.

The Astros’ only other run Tuesday was Dexter Fowler’s eighth homer of the season, a fourth inning shot that cut the A’s lead to 2-1.

But the Astros also entered Tuesday with the worst contact rate in all of baseball, 75.9 percent of swings according to FanGraphs. Of players with 250 plate appearances, the Astros entered Tuesday with four of the top 20 players in strikeout rate, including the No. 2 player on the list, Jon Singleton.

“This here is all a part of the process,” Porter said. “Offense is going to come and go. What I love right now is that we’re pitching well and we’re in each and every ball game. … I have all the faith in them that they’re going to break out of it. As long as we continue to pitch, continue to play defense, when the offense does click, we have an opportunity to go on a really good run.”

The A’s took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a two-out Jonny Gomes RBI-single. They went up 2-0 on a Nate Freiman double in the fourth.

Dallas Keuchel walked three and struck out three in a seven-inning no-decision. A’s starter Jason Hammel was even better in his seven innings, and his exit in the eighth inning might have been just what the Astros needed.